Plzeň usher Napoli to the exit

Jan Kovařík and Stanislav Tecl struck after the break as FC Viktoria Plzeň completed a 5-0 aggregate victory against SSC Napoli to earn a UEFA Europa League round of 16 tie with Fenerbahçe SK.

With snow swirling down gently in Plzen, Kovařík put the freeze on Napoli's slender hopes of a comeback with a crisp effort on 51 minutes. While the UEFA Europa League's top marksman Edinson Cavani did his best to lift the visitors' morale, it was another substitute – Plzeň's Tecl – who had the pleasure of finishing the scoring on the night.

Though Cavani started on the bench, Napoli began brightly and Lorenzo Insigne had Matús Kozáčik scrambling to fend away an early shot. Plzeň might have led when a typically menacing Pavel Horváth delivery from the left arced into the path of Marek Bakoš, but the striker stabbed at the ball as it reared up at him and it trundled past Morgan De Sanctis's left-hand post.

Bakoš's anguish continued after the interval as he looped a header over the bar, and he could have made amends within seconds but František Rajtoral's centre from the right eluded both him and attacking partner Daniel Kolař. Fortunately for Plzeň, it fell to the unmarked Kovařík on the edge of the box, with his powerful shot squirming under De Sanctis.

Having come on at half-time, Cavani raised the pulse with a couple of attempts from distance, but the Czech First League leaders picked Napoli off on the counter, Kolář laying the ball out left for Tecl to curl it elegantly around De Sanctis. Radim Řezník then crashed an effort against the bar, but while Napoli pressed gamely, challenging Juventus for the Serie A title will now be their main focus.

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